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Lawmakers hear call to professionalize veterans' services officers.

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, MAY 15, 2013.......Government officials frequently promote veterans benefits in Massachusetts as the best and most generous in the country. Now some key lawmakers are prepared to take steps to ensure that growing numbers of veterans

The Lowell Sun

Updated:
05/15/2013 03:55:17 PM EDT

By Michael Norton

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

BOSTON -- Government officials frequently promote veterans benefits in Massachusetts as the best and most generous in the country. Now some key lawmakers are prepared to take steps to ensure that growing numbers of veterans know all of their benefit opportunities no matter where they live.

Tom Lyons, legislative agent for Massachusetts Veterans Services Officers Association, said the Hidden Wounds of War Commission in 2008 and 2009 helped expose the unequal administration of veteran benefits in Massachusetts cities and towns due to varying knowledge levels among veteran services officers about benefits in the areas of health care, education, employment, disabilities, retirement and others.

Lyons and two other association officials urged the Veterans Affairs Committee Wednesday to pass legislation (S 1747/H 3192) requiring the state to adopt regulations that ensure veteran service officers and agents are trained and certified within 12 months of being appointed or within 12 months of the promulgation of regulations.

Under the House bill, veteran service officers would need to pass a test and would be recertified every five years. Both bills would make municipalities subject to penalties for failing to comply with the proposed law.

Association president Steven Connor, director of Central Hampshire Veterans Services, said Massachusetts has the best overall benefits and services available to veterans among the states.

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"The difficulty is they are not being distributed equally from town to town," said Connor, whose organization serves veterans in Northampton, Amherst and towns along Route 9. "If we don't get it to the people, then it's rather moot."

Michael Sweeney, the veteran services officer in Lynn, told lawmakers that veterans, after serving their country, should not be "penalized" when seeking to access benefits depending on where they live.

Sen. Michael Rush (D-West Roxbury), co-chairman of the committee, said after the hearing that he supports the bill and believes it has a reasonable chance of passing given support for it from the veterans services officers group and the Patrick administration.

With 40,000 veterans returning from recent wars and conflicts, adding to the 400,000 existing veterans, Rush said he wants to make sure veteran services officers are as knowledgeable and professional as possible since benefits and services are offered at the state and federal levels, with policies often changing.

Rep. Hank Naughton (D-Worcester), the committee's former chairman, also testified in favor of the legislation

Officials from American Legion and Disabled American Veterans groups also used their time testifying before lawmakers to urge them to restore $1.3 million in funding for veterans cut by Gov. Deval Patrick in December. Veterans groups said the funds should be restored in light of recent tax collections, which have exceeded estimates.

Matt McKenna, director of communications for the Department of Veterans Services, told the News Service the funds were cut because they represented a projected surplus in the Chapter 115 account that reimburses municipalities for benefits to indigent veterans. McKenna said that even with the cut and after paying $11 million in benefits in the last quarter of this fiscal year, the account that pays the benefits is running a $112,000 surplus.

"They don't need that money," McKenna said. "No city or town will be affected."

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